About the speaker: Laura Agustín is author of Sex at the Margins:
Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry (Zed Books 2007).

Laura Agustín studies cultural, sexual and postcolonial issues linking
commercial sex, migration, informal economies and feminist theory. Her
research amongst migrants and social helpers challenges several
contemporary myths: that selling sex is completely different from any
other kind of work; that migrants who sell sex are always passive victims;
and that the multitude of people out to save them are without
self-interest.

Agustín argues that the label 'trafficked' does not describe migrants'
lives and that a Rescue Industry disempowers them. Frequently, says
Agustín, migrants prefer to work in the sex industry to their other
options, and, despite being treated like a marginalised group, they form
part of a dynamic global economy.